608 - Impact of Implementing Pharmacist Review and Monitoring of Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy

Background: Given current efforts to increase the safety of outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) programs nationwide, this project sought to determine whether pharmacist managed OPAT review and monitoring improves adherence to standard of care laboratory monitoring recommendations.

Methods: A single-center, retrospective review of patients > 18 years of age who received OPAT from University Health System was conducted. Patients who received OPAT between October 2018 and December 2018 served as the historical control group. After a pharmacist transitions of care program was implemented, patients who received OPAT between October 2019 and December 2019 were included in the intervention group. Patients were excluded if they received less than 7 days of OPAT, completed therapy prior to discharge, or died while inpatient. The primary endpoint was adherence to laboratory monitoring recommendations > 75% of the duration of planned OPAT. Only patients followed by the OPAT clinic were included in this analysis. Recommendations provided in the 2018 Infectious Diseases Society of America OPAT guidelines were used to define appropriate lab monitoring. Secondary endpoints included 30-day readmissions.

Results: A total of 409 patients were included in this study: 198 patients in the pre-implementation group and 211 patients in the post-implementation group. In patients with OPAT clinic follow-up, the post-implementation group was significantly more likely to receive monitoring adherent to standard of care laboratory monitoring recommendations > 75% of the duration of planned OPAT: 42/161 (26.1%) vs. 98/176 (55.7%), OR 3.6 (95% CI 2.2-5.6, p = 0.0001). There was no difference in 30-day readmission rates between groups in the overall population. Patients in the post-implementation group with OPAT clinic follow up had lower 30-day infectious disease-attributed readmissions: 18/161 (11.2%) vs. 14/176 (8.0%), p = 0.31.

Conclusion: Implementation of a transitions of care pharmacist significantly improved adherence to laboratory monitoring recommendations for patients receiving OPAT and numerically reduced 30-day infectious disease-attributed readmissions.